The Last Flowers Ch. 14

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~*~:~*#K#*~:~*~

The tribe moved quickly through the trees. They wanted to reach the village and get home before day's end. In her hand Kerensa carried a sharp stick Rozenwild had snapped across her shin. Several others were similarly armed. They paused at the edge of the forest, looking down at the fields and buildings.

"Everyone ready?" Rozenwild asked.

There were nods and quiet sounds of agreement. With the next breath, they set off. The pace was a brisk march, threatening with heads held high. Kerensa was at the front with Rose holding the left flank. On her other side was Ellowyn, Sarielle, and Laceleaf. Behind her were Aster and Dendelyn, across from Sage, Evadne, and Willow. Amaranth was at the back left so she could shield Hevani if she got frightened. Abelia stood with Flora on the right because Flora insisted she could only reach aggression when protecting someone and would be a terrible choice for the front.

As the fierce group stormed into the town, the main street slowed to a halt. People stared with mouths open and whispered to each other.

"Abelia!" cried a woman, hand to her heart.

Abelia waved to her mother but didn't break ranks.

"What is this?" shouted the chancellor, bursting down the steps of a shop. The sight of the nymphs was enough to make him stop short of the group. "Whores! That's what you are. Hang your heads in shame and go back to your houses."

"Shut the fuck up," Sarielle spat as they passed.

Rozenwild snapped her teeth at a woman, who nearly fell over in fright. The tribe continued to the meeting lawn and took up position in front of the altar. Beside it was a large metal pot they used as a bell. Kerensa grabbed the mallet from inside and wacked the side of it repeatedly, summoning the town to the assembly. Elhuvens poured out of shops and nearby houses. The tribe was horrifically outnumbered, but most were keeping their distance. Kerensa eyed a man pushing to front. Evadne's father approached the group with a sneer on his face.

"You creatures stole our daughters. Give them back!"

Kerensa snorted. "We weren't stolen. We left, you idiot."

The high-pitched voice of Abelia's mother came from the right. "Abelia, you need to stop this nonsense right now and come home. Your father's very disappointed in you."

Abelia laughed. "Good. I think that means I'm finally doing something right."

The patriarch hurried over, one hand on his chubby tummy, the other clutching his staff. "What is going on?"

The chancellor glared at Kerensa. "How dare you ring the bowl. Give me that."

Kerensa threw the mallet at his head as hard as she could. It hit him on the chin and he stumbled backwards. Rozenwild stepped between them and lifted her spear.

"Back," she ordered.

He backed up, along with the couple of villagers he'd stumbled into, but he was fuming. "Immoral filth. You'll be lucky if your families even take you back."

Sarielle laughed. "You're completely deluded. You think we'd come back, to this? To people who hurt us, who treated us in the most horrible ways. We're not here to return. We're here to take what's ours and to deliver a message."

"Now you listen here, you depraved wenches." The patriarch banged his staff on the ground.

Rozenwild shot forward and ripped the staff out of his hand. She drove it against her bent leg, snapping it in half. "You're the ones who need to listen."

A man came forward on the right side and Laceleaf gave him a firm shove back into the crowd.

Evadne's father stalked that side of the group until he spotted his daughter. "Evadne, you disgusting pig. You're a sow of sin. You let these creatures and stupid girls turn you against your own family. Go home now! Go. Home!"

"Ignore him," Sage's gentle voice said.

Kerensa spared a glance her way. Evadne was pale and staring at the ground with hunched shoulders.

"Evadne, don't give in to them," Laceleaf growled over her shoulder. She left her position and took Evadne's chin in her palm. "Keep your mind where you want it," she said firmly and went back to guarding the group.

A tall man cut a path towards them, parting the crowd with his broad shoulders.

"Who's this one?" Rozenwild asked Kerensa, setting her eyes on him.

"Hevani."

She curled her lip. "He's not getting near her."

He didn't try. Instead, he found the patriarch and started talking to him.

"Is yours here?" Rose asked.

"Over by the tree."

A scream came from behind them. Evadne's father had her by the wrist. She pulled free right as Laceleaf seized his arm and spun it violently. There was a crack and he fell to the ground moaning in pain.

"I'm not going anywhere with you." Evadne yelled. "I hate you!" She kicked him in the leg. "I hate you. I hate you. I hate you," she screeched as she kicked him.

Kerensa clapped her hands with glee. "Get him, Eva."

"So, you're her worthless father." Laceleaf hissed, picking him up by the throat. "I should break the other one too for what you've done to her." She threw him back into the crowd.

The people in front of the altar were getting too close. Ellowyn swung her arm and a runner of grass shot across the ground. Tall blades shot out like a fence, making the people recoil and shriek. Laceleaf raised another on her side to push them back before they started thinking they had the upper hand. Another man jostled people and stepped through the grass. Laceleaf broke from the group and pounced on him, sending nearby people fleeing.

"Laceleaf, no!" Sage ran to her. "That's my father."

"Yet you wish for me not to break his bones?"

"My parents might have been unkind at times, but they're not as bad as most here. Hurting them wouldn't make me feel better."

"Sage?" a woman cried from the crowd.

Sage walked towards her, with Willow on her heels. The people shrank away from the approaching forbidden creature, leaving Sage's mother standing alone.

"Arletta said you might be alive, but I didn't want to get my hopes up."

Sage hugged her. "I couldn't get back."

"People said horrible things about you, but I don't care if they're true. I'm just glad you're home."

"My home's in the forest now, with Willow."

"But." She glanced at Willow.

"You don't need to worry about her," Willow assured.

"I can't talk right now. But maybe I could visit sometime." Sage stepped away from her shocked parents and returned to the group.

"I think they finally understand," Rozenwild said, gesturing to the townsfolk, who had stopped making any moves towards them. "Time for you to go."

Kerensa slunk away from the altar, taking Amaranth, Flora and Abelia. The nymphs were their escorts while the elhuvens retrieved personal items they might need in the future. Amaranth stayed with Kerensa, standing guard while she gathered up the few things she'd like to keep and stuffed them in her wooden trunk. Thanks to her father, she didn't actually own much, but she'd need more clothes and a hairbrush. She couldn't leave her mother's necklace, or the little toy sheep her mother so lovingly made for her when she was pregnant. Kerensa threw in her lace bobbins for something to do and stole a little money from the jar in her father's room. Something soft bumped her leg as she closed the chest.

"Pabo." She scooped the ginger cat off the floor.

Amaranth gave her a sad look.

"I know. I can't take him." She smiled. "It's okay. I'm not that fond of him. I just liked the company."

She ruffled his head and sat him down. Amaranth helped her carry the chest out of the house. Flora and Abelia emerged a few houses down, also carrying a chest, which wasn't to plan, but Abelia must have wanted to take a lot of things. They stashed the chests at the end of the street and returned to tag the next two elhuvens. Evadne and Sage went out next, although Sage didn't know if she'd find anything. When they returned, Amaranth and Flora took Sae and Hevani. Willow was keeping the town distracted with a detailed history of the curse tree, but she was already up to its destruction and the girls weren't back yet. Kerensa noticed puffs of smoke rising from one of the shops on the main street. Their captive audience broke into whispers and pointed fingers. She looked behind her and saw the trail of smoke wafting from the south-west corner of the town. The house at that edge of the town was Sarielle's. And right next door was Hevani's.

"They've set a house on fire." Kerensa ran from the altar using the neighbouring buildings to cover her as she headed south. Her focus was to the east, on the smaller fire coming from the shops. She was nearly level with it when someone called out behind her.

"Sari--" He cut off. "Kerensa."

She spun around. Zarek. She should have known he'd be watching from a distance.

"Where's Sae?"

She looked to the east, between the houses. Her friends were coming their way, fleeing the shops. They burst out into the street full of energy.

"Sarielle, our house?" Zarek asked, panicked.

She shook her head and pointed to Hevani. "Her house. I wouldn't do that to you."

Her father nodded, relieved. "He deserves it." Zarek turned to leave. "Shame you didn't burn it down with him in there."

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~*~:~*#R#*~:~*~

Rozenwild took a step to the right. "Elle, what is Sae doing?"

Her sister gave her a nervous look. "I don't know."

"They weren't supposed to set anything on fire," Laceleaf hissed at Ellowyn.

"Those whores!" Hevani's father bolted through the garden past the altar.

"Where are you going?" Rozenwild threw a seed and shot vines out to snag his ankles. He hit the dirt hard and they dragged him back in front of the nymphs. He writhed and swore, so Rose grew vines around his face to gag him.

"Garrid, your shop burns!" a woman yelled.

The man screamed into his binds and thrashed, his face turning red.

Kerensa suddenly appeared with a flaming broom. "If we are setting things on fire..." She took off towards a small hut behind the altar.

"She's not supposed to be setting anything on fire," Laceleaf repeated.

"I'm not going to stop her." Rose chased after her mate, catching up with her as she launched the broom into the sky like a javelin. It fell on the thatched roof, which caught alight. Kerensa cackled triumphantly. Rozenwild hugged her around the waist. "Okay, let's get you away from this inferno."

Laceleaf didn't look impressed when they came back. "What was that for?"

"That was the Den of Absolution," Kerensa explained.

Laceleaf must not have heard any stories about it because that clearly meant nothing to her.

Rozenwild nudged Kerensa. "When we get back I'm taking you to the Den of Absolute Pleasures."

Her smile was sultry. "I love the Den of Absolute Pleasures."

"You can take her there, but you can't do anything to her," Laceleaf ordered.

Rose groaned.

Sarielle returned in a hurry, taking up her former position at the front. Flora and Amaranth were behind her, either side of Hevani.

"What happened?" Ellowyn asked.

Sae shook her head. "I gave up trying to stop her. She wants it all to burn."

"He needs to know what it's like to lose everything," Hevani snarled.

"Did you get any of your things?" Kerensa asked her, sympathetically in case she hadn't.

"Of course not." Hevani tossed her head in an uncharacteristically haughty way. "He's trashed the house in one of his fits of rage and thrown my things in the fire." Her voice got louder and nastier. "Not that I had anything, because he loves throwing my things in the fire, or smashing them on the floor. Almost as much as he loves shouting at me, or slapping me in the face, hitting me, kicking me, splashing hot soup on me, throwing things at me!" Her eyes were wild and she was so loud that half the villagers could hear. Hevani noticed her father in his vulnerable predicament. "Just like you did to her, didn't you? You killed her! YOU KILLED MY MOTHER!"

"Shit," Kerensa muttered under her breath.

Laceleaf ordered the vines to pull. Rozenwild didn't wait for them. She grabbed Garrid by the ear and dragged him closer. The vines closed in around his wrists, so he couldn't move.

Hevani stood over him, hands in fists so tight her knuckles were white. She glared down the townspeople, rolling her head as if deranged.

"He made her lose the baby. He said it probably wasn't his, that she was a whore because she smiled at the baker. He called her horrible things and kicked her in the stomach until she bled. Then he left her there in a pool of it. She could barely walk for days, and all you did for weeks afterwards was make idiotic comments about fate." Hevani shook her head. "You think she died from being kicked by a horse?" She laughed, a vile, twisted sound. "How could you be so stupid? He killed her. He finally hit her so hard she died. Then he blamed it on Chestnut so no one would know what a monster he was. But I know. I heard him do it," she hissed. "And now you know too." Her attention dropped to the man at her feet. "I'll never let you lay a hand on me again." Hevani stomped her bare heel into his stomach. Another kick connected with his face. "YOU EVIL BRUTE. YOU'RE FUCKING EVIL!" she screeched in dreadful high-pitched wails as she struck him again and again, the years of abuse making her rabid with fury. Her breath turned raspy and she was beginning to tire, so Rose and Amaranth hauled her off him. Amaranth pulled her close, cradling her head to her shoulder, and took her away behind the altar. With an ugly expression of wrath set upon her face, Laceleaf walked over to Hevani's father and kicked him in the balls. A swift kick to the chest cracked several of his ribs.

"Oh, dear," Flora muttered.

The skinny man at the front grasped fistfuls of the fat old man's shirt and shook him. "Do something! We can't let them burn the town." He turned to the gathering. "Stop them."

"Get the witches!" the leader yelled, thrusting his hand in the air. Mob mentality was leaching into the frightened people.

"Kill the witches," came a call from the back.

A few of the agitators at the front surged forward. Rozenwild and Ellowyn scattered seeds and grew metres of vines. They whipped through the air, lashing several men and a woman across the face and arms. It forced the townspeople to retreat.

"Restrain them," Willow said, looping a vine around the old man.

Kerensa placed a hand on Rose's shoulder. "Get the chancellor." She pointed to the wiry one with a moustache. Her voice was eager, determined.

Rozenwild narrowed her eyes. Kerensa wanted her to go after him for a reason, and Rose wasn't going to disappoint her. She dug a seed out of her top and chucked it onto the dirt. With a shot of her power, a rosebush burst from the earth, bristling with long, razor-sharp spines. She made a vine snare the chancellor by the ankle and drag him through the shrub. He kicked and screamed the whole way.

Ellowyn quickly tied up the old man, who Sarielle called the patriarch, while her other sisters subdued three other aggressors. Willow had tethered Evadne's father to the ground and Dendelyn was smiling sweetly at a man whose hands she'd bound together.

Sarielle climbed onto the altar. "We're not here to raise the village. We're here to ensure no more harm comes to the girls who live here. Where are Nessa and Arletta?"

The crowd was silent until a woman said, "Gone, several days ago."

"Good. What about Elestern and Mirabelle?"

The people looked at those around them. The elhuvens to the north shuffled, slowly moving away, revealing a huddled family. Sarielle jumped down and headed for them. The people recoiled from her, making a path. They moved even faster for Ellowyn and Rozenwild. The mother held the teenage sisters tighter as the approached.

"I won't let you take them."

"If you keep them safe I won't have to," Sarielle told them. "Let me speak to them."

Mirabelle and Elestern tried to pull away.

"It's just Sae," one of them said.

"She's bewitched," hissed the father.

"Has anyone tried to do anything to you?" Sarielle asked the girls.

The blonde one shook her head. "Mother wouldn't let them hurt us. She keeps us at home."

Sarielle gave their hands a squeeze. "You know where to find help." She met their mother's eyes. "They need to go to school. Move somewhere they'll have freedom and be treated with respect."

They left the family and returned to the altar, where Willow was waiting to speak.

"This town was cursed from the beginning. We have burned the tree to ashes. However, malevolence has saturated this place and it cannot be allowed to remain as it is."

Sarielle stood next to her. "If we hear about anything happening to those girls, we will come for them. And not just them. We will take every girl born in this village for the rest of time."

"I strongly suggest you leave this land. It doesn't belong to you," Willow continued.

"It's ours. I was born here," yelled a man.

Laceleaf curled her lips in a sneer. "Your ancestors stole it from the forest and you continue to take more of it each year, robbing it of its trees. Now the forest is strong enough, it will reclaim it. Stay if you wish, but your crops will fail and the trees will close in on you."

Rozenwild picked up her spear, ready to leave. Behind the altar Hevani was curled in a ball, rocking back and forth. Amaranth nodded that she had her, and indicated they were taking a side street. Rose let the group leave behind her. She couldn't resist stabbing Garrid in the thigh on her way out. Kerensa spat on the chancellor and came over to her grinning. She went to take Rose's hand, but froze short of touching her. She stared at the thorns jutting out of her skin.

"You've got..."

Rose had forgotten they were out. Kerensa wouldn't be scared of them, would she?

"They come out when I'm enraged." She carefully wrapped her hand around Kerensa's fingers, so she wouldn't nick her wrist on the thorns.

"Do the others...?"

She shook her head. "They're Tempestia's doing. Some of the flower fairies get them."

The two of them brought up the rear of the procession, which halted its fast pace only to pick up the chests. When they neared the trees, Aster peeled away to go to her house, taking Dendelyn with her. Kerensa let out a little gasp and hurried after them. Curious, Rozenwild followed to see what she was up to.

Inside the house, Dendelyn was holding open a sack for Aster to fill. Kerensa was pulling books off a shelf in the corner.

"I nearly forgot." She smiled and came over to Rose. "I'm not really into books. But I thought I could teach you to read."

Warmth squeezed Rozenwild's chest. She gazed into Kerensa's lovely blue eyes. Her thorns slid into her skin and she leaned in to kiss her.

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~*~:~*#D#*~:~*~

No one from the town tried to follow them. As exciting as venturing outside was, Dendelyn was relieved they were back inside the safety of the forest. Those villagers didn't look very friendly.

Rozenwild adjusted her grip on the wooden box they were carrying between them. "Why do we have four chests?"

"Abelia," Kerensa said.

"What did you bring?"

Abelia got flustered. "Well...I...things."

"Sage, did your parents still have your stuff?" Sarielle asked.

"Yes. They saw me leave and followed us." She laughed at their reaction. "It was all right. They understood why I didn't want to stay. They saw what happened to all of you. Mother even tried to help me pack. You should have seen all the things she wanted to give me for my house. I need them for when I meet my husband, you see."

"Ah, yes, him. Where is that fellow?" Aster asked.

Dendelyn glanced around to see who was lagging behind. Amaranth was setting Hevani down. She'd carried her the entire way, but it looked like the girl was feeling well enough to walk on her own.